Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #241918 in DVD
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: English, French, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, Polish, Dutch, Finnish
• Dubbed in: Spanish
• Running time: 124 minutes

Amazon.com
This typical but well-made action movie, which spawned numerous sequels, means to combine the best elements of the disaster movie with the hard-boiled attributes of traditional action-adventures. When a plane is hijacked to the Middle East by Palestinian terrorists, the Pentagon calls into action the Delta Force, an elite squad of highly trained commandos led by tough guy mainstay Lee Marvin and karate-action-star Chuck Norris. Their mission is simple: to thwart the terrorists and rescue the hostages, and the plot concentrates largely on just that, as the team uses its experience and fighting skills to get the job done. Its sometimes preachy patriotic bent occasionally gets in the way of the action, and Norris is a one-dimensional figure who at times takes himself too seriously, but his rapport with easygoing veteran Marvin moves the film over some implausible rough spots. While not a groundbreaking contribution to the genre, Delta Force impresses with its straightforward tough-guy style. --Robert Lane

Customer Reviews

Subtitles
The only thing I do not like about this movie being on DVD, is that the english subtitles (I.E. the translation of the language used by the hijackers and other foreigners) and the timelines for the movie were left out, whereas they were on the VHS version. If you make another version of this film (I.E. Special Edition, Director's Cut, etc.) please include those items. Other than that, the movie was excellent. I wish all forms of airline hijacking was handled this way.

STANDARD FORMULA BUT EXCITING ACTION FILM
Delta Force came out in 1986, not long after the Bombing of the marine barracks in Lebanon and the release of the hostages in Iran. These two events fuel the Delta Force about a passenger aircraft on its way to New York that is hi-jacked by Arab terrorists and diverted to Beirut. The cast looks like one of those big-budget, 1970's era disater films with Joey Bishop, Shelly Winters, Martin Balsam, Lanie Kazan, and George Kennedy all playing passengers on the flight. The terrorists are led by Robert Forster as Abdul.

With the hi-jacking, the Army puts the Delta Force to work to plan a rescue operation. Overseeing the command is Lee Marvin as Col. Alexander playing the grizzled veteran office not so different than the part he played in The Dirty Dozen. Chuck Norris Major Scott McCoy who is the leader of the team, called back into active action for the mission. The planned rescue mission is aborted when they soon learn that more terrorists boarded the plane when it stopped to re-fuel in Algeria. The terrorists are demanding Isreal release dozens of terrorists from prison or they will kill the hostages. They demonstrate their intentions by viciously beating and killing a young American naval diver as well as holding all the Jewish passengers separate from the rest. The women are eventually released but the men are taken to a prison once they land in Beirut and it's up to the Delta Force to rescue the hostages.

The stereotypes run hot and heavy in Delta Force on both the Arab and Jewish side. And not only that, but there's a German flight attendant who just CAN'T be the one to pick out the Jewish passengers due to her (evidently) instinctive guilt over the concentration camps and holocaust of WWII, and she courageously tries to help the American divers by telling them to hide their Naval ID cards. There's a lot of posturing speeches by both the terrorists and the hostages including George Kennedy who plays a Catholic priest and insists on being put with the Jewish men since Jesus was "King of the Jews". it's all pretty hokey but also great fun. Politcally correct? Maybe not but who gives a damn! It's really not unlike many WWII era war movies. The Delta Force is black and white and you know who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. Politics is not even worth mentioning.

Chuck Norris will never be considered a great actor but he also never tried to do too much. He played the strong, fairly silent type of hero perfectly, and with a strong sense of patriotism. The action scenes were very well done and you couldn't help but cheer when the hostages were rescued and the bad guys got theirs in the end. Cannon films churned out the action flicks in the 1980's and this was one of the best.

Great movie but DVD has problems.
Delta Force is one of the better of the handfull of anti-terrorist films that came out in the 1980's. Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin are a great combo. My only complaint is with MGM's production of the DVD. First, it's in standard full frame format. No widescreen version. Second, and more annoying is that MGM left out the English subtitles when the Arabs are speaking. My laser disc version of the film had them, so I know it's a mistake on the DVD. The only subtitles available are French and Spanish.